Vector Gain-Guided Dissipative Solitons in a Net Normal Dispersive Fiber Laser

We report on the experimental observation of spontaneous vector dissipative soliton train formation in a dispersion-managed cavity fiber laser with net normal cavity dispersion. The formation of the dissipative solitons is triggered by the nonlinearity-induced wave mixing and gain bandwidth limitation. So, they are named the gain-guided dissipative solitons to differentiate from those of the dissipative solitons formed in the mode-locked fiber lasers. The vector dissipative solitons are phase locked, and the coherent energy exchange between their two orthogonal polarization components is first revealed. Noise-like pulse emission and vector soliton rain effect are also experimentally observed.